Cooper Flagg’s career night helps the Duke Blue Devils (14-2, 6-0 ACC) extend their winning streak to double digits as they escape the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-9, 1-4 ACC) 86-78.
Flagg ended the game with a Duke and ACC freshman scoring record of 42 points along with 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Flagg is the first Duke player to score 40 points since JJ Reddick did so three times in his senior season of 2006.
The three NBA-bound Duke freshman started off the Blue Devils’ night as Knueppel found Flagg in the high post who then found Maluach on for the lob. The route was on from there, for a little while, as the Devils connected for 3 more threes from Cooper Flagg, Tyrese Proctor, and Sion James to claim an early 11-0 lead and forcing Micah Shrewsberry to take Notre Dame’s first timeout.
The Blue Devils defense remained stifling, making Notre Dame work deep into the shot clock and settled for heavily contested shots. Cooper Flagg has seemed to add even more to his arsenal by consistently hitting the 3-point shot. Despite what felt like a suffocating Duke half, Notre Dame’s three point shooting kept the game manageable in the first. The Fighting Irish got 24 of their 36 points from 3 while only making 4 shots from inside the arc. Duke finished the half shooting 53% from the field, and 7-17 from the arc. Notre Dame shot 48% from the field going 8-12 from deep. As expected, Cooper Flagg led the Blue Devils in scoring pouring in 15 points with 5 assists and 2 rebounds. Markus Burton continued to lead the Irish with 9 points.
Fireworks occurred towards the end of the half. Jon Scheyer picked up his second career technical foul as he ran past half court to let the officials know he was not happy with a charge call, bringing back memories of Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and his jacket from a decade ago.
The second half started the same way as the first half ended: Notre Dame burning up the perimeter. Once up 16 points, the Blue Devil lead shrunk down to 6 as the Irish were shooting 71% from 3. But, as for the majority of the nation, Cooper Flagg became too much to handle. After things got a little chippy as Notre Dame would not go away, Flagg took over. Another thunderous dunk and a career high in 3’s made had Flagg with a thirty nugget with more than 11 minutes left in the second half.
A 13-0 run late put Notre Dame down 5 with 50 seconds to go in the second half. Flagg broke both the Duke Freshman scoring record, as well as the ACC freshman scoring record from the line with under a minute to go. Lost in Cooper Flagg’s historic performance was a monster game from Khaman Maluach finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Markus Burton of Notre Dame played the final 10 minutes of the game with 4 fouls and ended the night with 23 points and 5 rebounds.
The Blue Devils shot 53.3% from the field, going 24-45 from 3 and 30-35 from the line.
The Irish shot 47.4%, 27-57 from 3, and 10-16 from the charity stripe.
Next up for the Blue Devils is the struggling Miami Hurricanes (4-11, 0-4 ACC) in Durham on Tuesday night. The Hurricanes have lost 4 in a row coming into their contest Saturday against the surging Wake Forest Demon Deacons, yet to have an ACC win.
The Fighting Irish head back to South Band and to take on the Boston College Eagles (9-6, 1-3 ACC) looking to break their 4 game losing skid.
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